Happy Valentine's Day!!! I've got the perfect recipe for you: Healthy Chocolate Hazelnut Cake! This cake is full of delicious chocolatey nutty flavor, healthy fats, and LOVE, obviously. It's the perfect way to say "I love you, but I don't love sugar spikes and feeling like crap from eating too much crappy cake."
This healthy chocolate hazelnut cake has a similar flavor to Nutella, due to the Hazelnut Flour. You can substitute for Almond Flour, but the cake will taste more like a chocolate cake, and less like a NUTELLA Chocolate cake. I used this Hazelnut Flour.
This Cake is gluten free, refined sugar free, dairy free, and grain free, making it technically, "Paleo." I cheated for the Frosting and used this Gluten Free Vanilla Frosting, which is made with coconut oil; its also made with sugar and palm shortening. Its not the healthiest option, but I didn't want to spend time making a healthy frosting. This cake comes together so quickly and easily, I didn't want to taint that!
If, however, you want to keep the entire cake Paleo, PaleoRunningMomma has an awesome Paleo Buttercream Frosting you can find here!
This recipe is not only easy to make, the ingredients are all very basic and simple.
Hazelnut Flour: Simply ground up Hazelnuts. These give the cake their Nutella-like flavor. You can sub in another nut flour (like almond flour), but the nuttiness will not be as pronounced.
Coconut Sugar: Usually, I prefer to use Maple Syrup or Honey as a sweetener in my recipes (like my Healthy Carrot Cake), but the Coconut Sugar crystals keep this cake airy and light. A liquid sweetener would weigh it down and make a much denser cake.
Dark Cocoa Powder: For the rich, chocolatey taste, of course! You don't *have to* use a Dark option, but I highly recommend it for the more intense chocolate flavor.
Coconut Oil: This keeps the cake moist. You can sub for another neutral oil, or even melted butter.
Almond Milk & Apple Cider Vinegar: This creates a dairy free "buttermilk" alternative, which keeps the cake moist (yeah, I said it), and tender. If you are not dairy free, feel free to sub in regular buttermilk!
Pin this recipe for later!
Healthy Chocolate Hazelnut Cake
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
- ½ Cup Coconut Oil, melted, Sub neutral oil such as Grapeseed or Avocado Oil
- ½ C + 3 tablespoon Coconut Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
- 3 Large Eggs, Room Temperature
- 1 Cup Almond Milk, Sub: Buttermilk or Regular Milk
- ½ tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar , Sub: Buttermilk or Regular Milk
Dry Ingredients
- 2 Cups Hazelnut Flour
- ½ Cup Dark Cocoa Powder
- ½ teaspoon Baking powder
- ½ teaspoon Baking soda
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Espresso Powder, Optional
Frosting
- Your favorite (healthy or not) frosting recipe!
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and grease/line 2 x 8" or 9" round cake pans.
- Add the Apple Cider Vinegar to the Almond Milk to "sour" it, making a Dairy Free Buttermilk. (Alternatively, you could use buttermilk or regular milk and skip this step.)
- Whisk the eggs, coconut oil, coconut sugar, vanilla, and "buttermilk" until well combined.
- Sift the dry ingredients together in another bowl and slowly add to the wet mixture. I like to add ⅓ add a time, mix, then add more. Do not overmix!
- Pour the batter into 2 greased cake pans and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool for at least 15 minutes before frosting. Or, store in an airtight container and frost the next day, whenever you are planning on eating it!
Notes
Store the cake in an airtight container at room temperature for about a day, or store in the fridge for longer!
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 10 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 300Total Fat: 32gSaturated Fat: 13gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 21gCholesterol: 78mgSodium: 50mgCarbohydrates: 23gFiber: 3gSugar: 9gProtein: 15g
Trin
Excited to try this recipe, thanks for posting! Do you think the hazelnut flour could be substituted?
thegranoladiaries
Yes, I discuss some suggestions in the post! Almond Flour or another 1:1 GF Flour could work!
Adi
What’s your healthy frosting?
thegranoladiaries
Hi, there are healthy options in the blog post, or I else I cheated and used a store-bought "not so healthy" option! 🙂
Calia
Do you think a flax egg would work here?
thegranoladiaries
I haven't tested it myself, but I do think it would work! If you try it, let us know!
Ginger Hultin
Looks amazing! I love the dark cake/light frosting look
thegranoladiaries
Thank you! It's my personal favorite combo!
Beth Elkassih
This looks so yummy. I can't wait to try this chocolate cake recipe with my family.
thegranoladiaries
Thanks, Beth! I hope you and your family love it!
Asma
Loved the cake! I used half almond half hazelnut and added an extra half cup as mine turned out quiet wet. Icing I used was applesauce, maple syrup and cocoa 🙂 thanks for all your recipes I'm recently on an elimination diet and this really helped my dessert cravings!!
thegranoladiaries
Thank you so much! That Icing sounds delicious!
Karen
Think it would work as cupcakes with a tweaked baking time?
thegranoladiaries
Absolutely!